TruthScape.com  9  TruthScape Skill Secrets       9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Herblore            9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Herblore - Introduction, Overview and Training Basics

The Drawbacks of Training Herblore Herblore Training Synergies

Herblore is a transformation skill, which means that you get XP nearly entirely from making products. In the course of training the skill, you will need to decide what items to produce, generally choosing on the basis of factors such as your Herblore level, which potions you use, the availability of herbs and secondary ingredients, and demand for potions by buyers. You will then attempt to make these products as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Training techniques are the subject of a major portion of this guide; this overview is intended as a summary of that information, to give you an idea of what you’ll actually be doing as you work this skill. There are two subsections below, which correspond to the two basic approaches to training the Herblore skill: either making potions, or exploring alternative products and methods for getting XP.

Most herblorists do nearly all of their training by making potions of one sort or another. They start with attack potions at level 3, and then as they gain Herblore experience and their level increases, they move up to higher-level potions that give more XP.

Making potions is actually quite simple, and can be broken down into the following four steps: obtaining materials, processing materials, making unfinished potions, and finishing the potions.

Most potions require at least three items to make:

• Base: Liquid in a vial that serves as the base of the potion. Most frequently this is a vial of water, but higher-level potions use coconut milk instead. Some special potions actually are produced using another finished potion as a base.
  
  
• Primary Ingredient: This is usually an herb, though not always; for example, the primary ingredient for super weapon poison is cave nightshade.
  
  
• Secondary Ingredient(s): Most of the time there is one secondary ingredient, though certain potions use more than one.

You have three options for obtaining most of these items: produce them, gather them or buy them. Vials can be made using the Crafting skill, bought cheaply in small quantities from stores, or bought in bulk from other players on the Grand Exchange. Herbs come mainly from combat drops or the Farming skill, and again can be bought from players. Secondary ingredients come from a variety of sources—depending on the ingredient—including Farming, the Summoning skill, gathering from spawns, and of course, buying from other players.

In some cases the materials you have obtained will be ready to use in your potions, but you may need to first do some work on them. This may include:

• Filling vials (if they are empty).
  
  
• Cleaning grimy herbs.
  
  
• Grinding secondary ingredients such as unicorn horns or gorak claws to dust.

Once all the materials are ready to go, the process of making the potion begins by using the primary ingredient on the base liquid (or vice-versa). With the new “do X” features added to Herblore, the game will prompt the player for how many to make, and the process completes fairly quickly (Figure 148).

The result of this step is an unfinished potion, usually named “<herb> potion (unf)”. Normally, no XP is obtained for making unfinished potions, though there are a couple of potions that behave differently. Unfinished potions are tradeable if the primary ingredient is tradeable, but the market for these items is thin, making buying and selling them often difficult.

The potions are completed by adding to the unfinished potion the secondary ingredient(s). Some unfinished potions are used to make a single type of finished potion, such as a snapdragon potion (unf) being made into a super restore potion (Figure 149). Others can be made into several potions, depending on which secondary ingredient is added in this step; for example, an irit potion (unf) can become a super attack potion or a super antipoison.

The end result is usually a finished 3-dose potion. Exceptions are extra strength and super strength antipoison potions, which always have 4 doses, and poisons, which are a single use only. Four 3-dose potions can be combined into three 4-dose potions by using the potion vials on each other to combine them.

There are several alternative methods to training Herblore, many of which are underrated by players who tend to focus only on making regular potions. The suitability of these techniques depends largely on what sort of activities players enjoy, and also on the current state of prices in the Herblore market. Here are some options to consider:

• Herb Cleaning: Rather than just cleaning herbs to be made into potions, some players train by obtaining grimy herbs and cleaning them, then selling the cleaned herbs. This is a rather labor-intensive process, and not for most players, but can be cost-effective depending on the relative prices of clean and grimy herbs.
  
  Even if one is just buying herbs to make potions with, one must decide whether buying clean or grimy ones is the better option.
  
  
• Making Herb Tars: Swamp tar gathered from swamp areas or as monster drops can be combined with low-level herbs to make herb tars that are used as fuel for salamanders caught by the Hunter skill. Herblorists can then sell these tars or use them for various forms of combat.
  
  
• Making Barbarian Mix Potions: These potions can be a good way of getting extra Herblore XP from regular potions that have already been made.
  
  
• Making Discardable Potions: This method involves making special potions and then emptying them to reuse the vials. In some cases, this is even done right in a dungeon using herbs that would otherwise be discarded, making it very cost-effective.

Note that it is also possible to get small one-time XP bonuses from quests, and to occasionally get some extra XP via the Assist System, though these can’t really be considered training methods per se.

The Drawbacks of Training Herblore Herblore Training Synergies